The Madonnatization of Retirement: Newly Revised Book Shows How Retirement Has Changed and What It Means to Americans

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This year Madonna along with Prince, Caroline Kennedy and Sharon Stone will reach their 50th birthdays. And as more and more Americans reach age 50 and beyond, the thought of retiring at 55 or even 65 in the old, traditional sense, is the furthest thing from their minds. In the newly revised, third edition of The New Retirementality: Planning Your Life and Living Your Dreams... At Any Age You Want (John Wiley & Sons, July 2008), financial philosopher Mitch Anthony explains why the old way of retiring is irrelevant and why retirement should be, well, retired.

New Retirementality 3E Book Cover

It no longer makes sense for people to work years at a job they may hate in order to amass a fortune before retiring and living the next 30 plus years of their lives feeling bored, irrelevant, and out of the mainstream

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This year Madonna along with Prince, Caroline Kennedy and Sharon Stone will reach their 50th birthdays. And as more and more Americans reach age 50 and beyond, the thought of retiring at 55 or even 65 in the old, traditional sense, is the furthest thing from their minds. Like the Queen of Reinvention she is, Madonna represents a new kind of 50 year old. Gone are the days when 50 year olds start thinking about retiring and living out the rest of their lives in retirement communities, playing golf and traveling in motor homes. Instead, they want a life that provides them with the freedom to pursue their personal and professional goals on their own schedules, and to achieve a healthy and satisfying balance in their lives among career, family, and leisure activities.

In the newly revised, third edition of The New Retirementality: Planning Your Life and Living Your Dreams... At Any Age You Want (John Wiley & Sons, July 2008), financial philosopher Mitch Anthony explains why the old way of retiring is irrelevant and why retirement should be, well, retired.

"It no longer makes sense for people to work years at a job they may hate in order to amass a fortune before retiring and living the next 30 plus years of their lives feeling bored, irrelevant, and out of the mainstream," says Anthony. "It is time to stop compartmentalizing work into the first part of our lives and leisure into the last part. Instead, with the appropriate financial planning and the right change in attitude, Americans can begin living the lives they really want now, not later. And for those of us who simply can't afford to retire in the traditional sense, it's time to rethink how we approach the rest of our lives. We can either sit back and give up, or realize that we have the opportunity to reshape our futures."

The New Retirementality helps readers examine their attitudes about work and retirement and about how life should be lived. Anthony shows readers how new opportunities will enable them to create a tailor-made life that is both fulfilling and flexible. Using exercises as well as anecdotes about real life people who are pursuing their dreams without a bundle in the bank, Anthony teaches readers how to identify their dreams and figure out how to achieve them. Among other things, Anthony uses his seven great "retiremyths" to challenge readers to abandon their preconceptions about retirement; highlights the financial building blocks readers can use to achieve the freedom they need to pursue their dreams on their own terms; and guides readers through an analysis of the emotional and psychological factors that can lead to a significant ROL (Return on Life).

With the latest edition of The New Retirementality, readers will discover how to achieve the freedom to pursue their retirement goals--at their own pace, on their own terms--regardless of their age. Anthony will show readers how new opportunities will enable them to create a tailor-made life that is both fulfilling and flexible. A companion website, NewRetirementality.com provides readers with the tools necessary to create a customized NewRetirementality profile.

Mitch Anthony is president of Advisor Insights, a Rochester, Minnesota-based training and communications firm, which advises the financial services and insurance industries. Mr. Anthony also writes and hosts the syndicated radio feature, The Daily Dose, heard on 160 stations nationwide, and the author of several additional books focused on the financial services industry. A living example of the new retirementality, Mr. Anthony has no plans to ever retire.

The Financial Life Planning Institute, founded by Mitch Anthony, is an organization focused on educating, training and developing tools for financial advisors in a discovery process called Financial Life Planning™. The Institute is focused on developing services and tools that help advisors implement the financial life planning process into their business by putting the client's interests before their own.
The New Retirementality (July 2008, $19.95, 256 pages, 6x9, paperback, ISBN: 978-0-470-25508-7) is available at neighborhood and online booksellers.